I realize that I'm not breaking news here, but I was truly sad this morning when I heard that
Luciano Pavarotti had passed away. I was introduced to Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and a few other greats probably 10 years ago. There is something truly engaging about all their voices, but specifically Pavarotti. Perhaps he was just the name brand, but to say he was only that is an incredible reduction of his work.
I've listened to some of his work probably thousands of times. The depth that he created was simply amazing. I heard someone describing his voice this morning and it sounded like they were describing a vintage bottle of wine. When you think about it, there may not be that much of a difference. Pavarotti's work will age gracefully, but it will always be special. You can listen and appreciate the qualities and subtleties in his singing. Its more than a song, its an experience.
I can still be brought to near tears by Nessun Dorma even after hearing it who knows how many times. The swelling orchestra and his perfectly matching voice is simply magical. Pavarotti has given us all a great gift to enjoy and one that our great-great grandchildren will be able to appreciate some day as well.
Goodbye Pavarotti – 71 years doesn't seem like enough, but your music will live with us forever.
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HP launches ad campaign to boost printers - Boston.com
HP launched a $300 million dollar marketing campaign to promote what they call "web-based printing
"As more and more content moves from the desktop to the Web, HP is working to make printing relevant and meaningful,"
I think what they meant to say was that, as other companies continue to improve and gain traction, HP is working to try and remain relevant and meaningful. Its been a long time since I have thought of HP's printers being top shelf, or even all that good, for that matter. Sticking 2.0 at the end of print makes you look like the 40 something guy that tries to dress like he's 21.
Apparently, this new technology will allow us to make books of photos and text. Haven't we been able to do that for a while now – even at home? Finishing is the name of the game. The trouble with home printing, for anything more than single sheet printing, is the finishing. Cutting, binding, sorting – it is a pain. They will also be offering stationery designs that you can go and grab from a website to use. So they are building Publisher?
All of this "cutting edge" stuff is only going to cost $300 million dollars to market. $300 million, and after that, you will still be my dad's printer. This doesn't sound revolutionary or even all that creative. If you want to solve the new uses for printers and the web, how about investing that $300 million in a technology that will make low resolution internet images print well? Then, you would be solving the REAL web and printing issue and people would run to you instead of being pulled. While they are at it, why not invest the $300 million in improving your inks and color reproduction. Maybe a color reproduction system that scans your monitor settings and adjusts the output to match the screen (since most people will never buy monitor calibration equipment).
Oh one more gift from HP, a[nother] toolbar that will give us access to printing tips. Another toolbar will definitely get me fired up.
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I've been reviewing a lot of the campaigns and designs that I have worked on, and I stumbled
across this pain relief campaign. When I began working on this project, the idea was to abandon the traditional thoughts about pain relief. When I started digging into that dark side of the brain, I realized that sometimes, we are in such pain, or at least annoyed by it, that we'll do anything to get rid of it. That is when the campaign hit me. I sketched out my thoughts and away we went.
The idea was to take this almost printed instructional look and add some humor to it. I burned through a number of scenarios until I finally settled on three: A lighter to the hair, a hammer to the fingers and a mousetrap to the tongue.
The idea was to leave you knowing that there are all kinds of alternatives when it comes to pain relief, but there is only one that is a good idea to use – Advil. Normally, I tend to use photography over illustration, but in this instance, illustration was able to convey so much more than the photos did. Well, I guess If I could have the picture of the actual hair burning off – hmm....
My point is, when directing, there are tons of little decisions that factor into the quality and ultimately the success of the final piece and the campaign. Color, size, style, copyrighting – all of it impacts the piece. Execution and the thought behind the campaign impact the effectiveness of the campaign. In this case, we know that pain isn't something to laugh about. Giving people a laugh about how they choose their pain relief is definitely more enjoyable than a photo of some generic guy in a generic scene talking about how his back feels better.
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Recently I took the
Strengthsfinder assessment test. I'm always a little skeptical about assessment tests. More often than not, they are either way off base or incredibly vague. After spending several weeks studying a Markus Buckingham curriculum, I decided to give it a shot.
After taking the test, and receiving the results, my first thought was, "wow". These top five characteristics really sum up what I love. I get really excited about strategy and developing concepts. I love working on ideas and fleshing them out. I'm a big fan of education, both traditional (school) and self-education such as the
Personal MBA. I think for a long time, I've tried to suppress my competitive side. I guess I've always known that it frustrated me, but for some reason I did it. I pride myself on doing my best to be objective and look at situations and people individually so that the best decision can be made.
This information, along with great advice from some people that I trust, has helped me shape where I want to go in the future. It has cleared up some of the frustration that I found myself dealing with that I believe I can now avoid.
If you have never taken the
Strengthsfinder test and you are curious about discovering your strengths, I say pick up a copy of the book (you will need the book for the pass code to take the test) and give it a try.
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August 14, 2007
10:46 am
Marketing,
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A quick troll of the job boards will reveal that now, more than ever, people like to see those three little initials somewhere in your education profile. For many, the idea of going back to school strikes fear in their heart. For me, I would like to go back to school and earn an MBA, but in the mean time, the
personal mba is an interesting idea.
The basic premise (which you can read about at
personalmba.com) is that all the information that you will learn in an MBA program is already available at your local (or internet) book retailer. The site has just announced its new and updated list of reading material, complete with reviews for each book.
Some laugh at the idea. I find it interesting though. If someone can dedicate themselves to read 69 business related books and apply the knowledge they have gathered, that is impressive. It may even be more impressive than a degree because it is completely based on self motivation.
Whether it will help you get a better job or not probably depends on where you are searching, but at the very least, you will learn a lot from some quality authors. So check out the
Personal MBA - Mastering Business Through Self-Education and judge it for yourself.
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My feed reader overfloweth. The hoopla has been building for quite a while, but yesterday, the iPhone unleashed all of its internet mind controlling power. If I had to guess, I would have to say that at least one third of the news articles I pulled in yesterday were iPhone related. Its been pure insanity, and a lesson to all of us marketing types. Some say enough already, can we kill the iPhone stories?? Gizmodo has even offered a way to view their site sans-iPhone news. Whether you wanted to hear about it or not, the iPhone dominated the news yesterday.
I mentioned to a friend yesterday that I couldn't recall a product/service that had as much hype as the iPhone had around it. She mentioned the X-Box and so I stopped and thought about it for a minute. The X-Box did have a great deal of hype around it, but I see one main difference. In their initial launch, X-Box leaned fairly heavy on traditional sources of advertising and marketing. When you examine what Apple has done with the iPhone, its a fairly small advertising plan, coupled with an unpaid word of mouth campaign to rival all word of mouth campaigns.
For weeks now, people have bombarded the internet with likes, dislikes, predictions and insanity all centered around the iPhone. The noise has been generated from nearly every angle possible and it all adds up to one thing: A huge marketing win for Apple. A devoted group of fans sure makes word of mouth a lot easier, but this effort has extended outside the Mac community proper. Apple doesn't have enough money to buy this kind of coverage. You can't buy the kind of gushing the iPhone has received from so many sources. For Apple's sake, you have to hope that the iPhone can live up to the hype.
Apple may have just changed the mobile phone game, but I think they may have just changed the marketing game as well. Through all of this word of mouth, they have bought an incredible amount of equity with people that normally would not even consider looking at a phone like this. By simply giving people something to talk about, they have expanded their potential audience to new levels.
Time will reveal if the iPhone is a true success or not. At some point, we'll get to see the number of units sold, we'll be able to read user reviews online and we'll see how much profit these little black beauties generate. We'll also get to see complaints and rants about how this or that doesn't do this or that. Only then, will anyone be able to give an authoritative answer on the success or failure of the iPhone. Until then, everyone else gets to sit back and watch as Steve Jobs and Apple turn marketing up to 11 once again.
June 29, 2007
11:51 pm
Marketing,
Random
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